Flume
by marap
Summary: 'It was a cool morning, the air crisp and fresh.' JJ and Will. From the beginning.
1. I

_AN: I only began watching Criminal Minds a month or so ago, but my love for the show - and specifically - for the character of JJ, grew very quickly. And, when I came to discover Will, I quickly fell in love with him, and his and JJ's relationship. I decided to write this fanfiction exploring their relationship from its beginning. I know there are a couple others out there that explore this, but seeing as the first year of their relationship was unseen, I figure it is open to a lot of different ideas and stories. This is my first CM fanfiction and I cannot make any promises as to how long it will go for or how quickly I will update. I will do my best to update soon, should people enjoy it. There is a lack of Will and JJ fanfiction, and I thought - seeing as I have eagerly read all that's out there - it was only fair for me to have a go at contributing myself! Thank you and I hope you like this first chapter! Oh, and the fanfic is named after a song by Bon Iver. x Mara_

**Flume**

**I.**

_'Change comes like a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn.'_

John Steinbeck

She tugged up the still-warm covers and smoothed out the pillows, tucking her blonde hair behind her ears when it fell into her eyes and blocked her view. The bed was hardly perfectly made, but it would do. As a child, her mother had always nagged her about it. Her sister had always been the neat one - JJ's room a mess while her sister's was tidy and ordered; the books on her shelves systematically arranged, the jewelry by her dresser hung neatly from coloured pins on a pin board.

It was a cool morning, the air crisp and fresh. When she'd awoken, JJ had cracked open her bedroom window, letting in narrow gusts of fresh air. Now showered and dressed, but no longer under those warm covers, she felt the cold against her bare forearms. She pulled the window shut. A few traces of flaked cream-coloured paint were left on her hands. She brushed them off, reminding herself that the window frame really needed a repaint.

As she left the room, she pulled a grey blazer on over her blue shirt, pulling her hair out from where it had tucked under the collar. She was due at work in just under an hour, which left her time for a second cup of coffee. Perhaps half a cup. It was only eight AM, after all.

She went to the kitchen and poured the coffee, reluctantly stopping at roughly the halfway mark. As she took a sip of the hot liquid, almost burning her mouth, her cell phone rang. She picked it up off the kitchen table. The number showed on the screen. She didn't recognise it, neither did her phone, apparently.

'Agent Jereau,' she answered, her voice a little croaky as she spoke her first words of the day. That was the one thing she disliked about living alone - the relatively long periods of time that could go by without her speaking to anyone. The silence. At work, she spent her days talking - to agents, victims, families, reporters. One would assume the peace and quiet of home would be welcomed. Yet JJ often found herself calling her mother more often than necessary, or leaving the television on or - occasionally - singing alone to some rock song coming through her stereo.

There was a fleeting pause on the other end of the phone before the voice spoke. JJ held the phone tight against her ear, her hair falling over it. 'Hey,' the voice said. 'It's Detective LaMontagne. From New Orleans.'

'Oh!' she said, surprised but pleasantly so. She felt a schoolgirl nervousness that was so unfamiliar. Or perhaps just forgotten or suffocated in the sadness of unsolved stories that sat on her desk in sickly yellow folders. 'Detective,' she greeted.

'_Oh?_ That all I get?' he teased, a smile in his voice.

'Sorry, I just-,' she stalled, a little embarrassed. 'I was surprised.' It wasn't the first time she'd said that to him, she realised. Which was saying something, considering the brief amount of time they had known each other. It had only been a week since they'd first met and this was their first communication since then. Not their first thoughts of each other, however.

JJ sat down on the sofa, her left leg folded beneath her. Her shoe heel dug somewhat uncomfortably into her thigh, but she didn't really notice. Her focus was on the voice at the other end of the phone.

'Waiting on a call from some other detective?' Will asked teasingly.

'Actually, kind of...' she said, pausing just to mess with him. 'It's not that rare for my day to start with some detective calling with a case or some update on the one we're working,' she clarified.

Will let out a breath. Perhaps one of relief. Not that he would admit that to himself.

'They call your cell?'

'If they're desperate,' she admitted. Sometimes, she found herself wishing that her business card did not have her cell number on it. It was necessary, however. After all, she barely spent any time in her office.

This, however, was not one of those times.

'Ah, I think you're selling yourself short there,' Will said playfully, deliberately misinterpreting her use of the word _'desperate.'_

'Nice,' she teased with a laugh, drumming the fingers of her left hand against her warm coffee mug.

'Thanks,' he said.

'You know,' she began, slumping back into the sofa. 'This job has taught me to be suspicious of guys who are heavy on the whole charm and flirting thing.'

'Well lucky I'm a detective, then. You know I must be trustworthy.'

'Yeah, cause the good guys never go bad,' she said sarcastically.

'Wow, sarcasm and cynicism, that's a deadly combo,' he drawled cheekily.

'It's a culture thing,' she defended with a shrug he couldn't see.

He laughed and she knew he got the joke.

A silence fell over them as they both considered their next words. It was a little awkward, but not nearly as awkward as one would expect. She took a sip of her coffee.

'Hope you don't mind me callin' at this early hour,' he said, breaking the silence. 'Got in early to do some paperwork and got through it quick.'

'So you needed something to pass the time?' she suggested with faux offense.

'Somethin' like that,' he said with a small chuckle, a touch of mystery in his drawl. 'You in Quantico?'

'Yeah, but this morning I'm briefing the team on a suspected serial arsonist case out in San Francisco. So we'll probably be off there later today, if Hotch agrees.'

'No cases bringing you down south?'

There was clearly more to his question than simple curiosity.

'Not right now,' JJ said, drawing out the last word as if in thought. 'You southern folk are playing nice, apparently.'

'Well I've got a case of stolen farm machinery,' Will said. 'Think you could convince 'em a profile's needed?'

'Somehow, I don't think so,' she laughed and glanced at the watch around her pale left wrist. 'So, I should probably get going. I'm due at work soon.'

'Yeah, 'course,' he said.

'So uh,' she paused, unsure how to end the conversation. 'Thanks for calling, Detective.'

'Will, please.'

'Okay. In that case, call me JJ.'

'Your initials I take it?' he drawled.

'Wow, no wonder you're a detective,' she teased.

He laughed. Then paused. Then spoke. 'Nice talking to you, JJ.'

'Bye,' she said a little shyly.

As she ended the call, she felt a giddy flutter in her stomach. She took a breath and drank the final mouthful of her coffee. It did nothing to ease the feeling in her stomach. She was almost glad.

She set the mug down on her coaster-free wooden coffee table, bringing both hands to her cell phone and letting her left leg shift from it's position underneath her. With her feet flat on the floor she leant forward and rest her elbows on her knees, gripping the phone tightly. She navigated to its list of recent calls and saved Will's number to the contacts list. It wasn't until after she'd done it that she realised the implication-

There were more calls ahead of them.


	2. II

_AN: Sorry for the wait! I tend to obsess about my writing and constantly change things, which slows the process down a bit. But I am working on it! I could have kept going, changing things with this chapter, but I decided enough was enough! Thank you for your support and kind reviews and I hope you like this chapter. Please leave a review. The favourites, story alerts etc are wonderful, but it is extra nice to read words, rather than just have a number change. Thanks! x_

**II.**

'_Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is?'_

Frank Scully

Will pulled paperwork from the top of his desk and began filing it into the carefully labelled archive folders lining the shelves of his office. The station was gently abuzz, neither frantic nor mellow. It was late afternoon and the sun was slowly making its retreat, a hazy orange glow coming through his office window as the last of the day's light crept in. He squinted as the glow hit his eyes.

The ringing of his phone interrupted the mundane end-of-day work. He left the thinning pile of paperwork on his desk and reached for his cell phone, the vibrate of which was making a _ting ting_ sound against his empty coffee cup. His cell phone was old, the ring tone highly synthesised. People often told him to upgrade it. Each time, he remembered an old saying of his father's. _Why fix what ain't broke?_

He read the name on the screen and spoke it as he answered. 'JJ,' he drawled with a smile. She couldn't see it, but his voice certainly didn't hide it.

'Hey,' she said.

Since they'd first met in New Orleans, they had spoken a handful of times. The call of duty had cut a few of their conversations short, but the others had made up for it.

A week and a half after his first call to her, she had called him for the first time. _Your turn JJ_, she'd told herself. Then too, he had answered the phone with her name in the form of greeting. Apparently, she hadn't been the only one adding a number to her cell. Her hands had drummed nervously on the phone as she made the call, but his voice saying her name had made the drumming stop.

'You busy?' she asked. Unusually, her work day had ended early. They'd got back from a case in the early morning. Bodies found in the Idaho wilderness, hunted like animals. After finishing off paperwork, they'd all gladly headed home at Hotch's rare suggestion.

'Nah, I'm all yours,' Will said with playful charm.

'How's your day been?' she asked.

'Probably a lot less exciting than yours, I'd imagine,' he drawled. His day had been a fairly quiet one. He'd carried out a few interviews regarding a series of assaults outside a local casino and taken two witness statements regarding the most recent assault the night before.

'That's one word for it,' she said.

'Bad case?'

'You know, what one isn't?' she said through her teeth, a quick bitter laugh tacked at the end.

'Wanna talk about it?' he asked, the offer sincere.

She sat up a little, shifting position as if to regroup. Embarrassed, perhaps. 'That's okay, I'm fine,' she said into the phone.

'Lousy liar,' he teased. Not for the first time.

'Yeah, well, I didn't call to complain to you about my day,' she said lightheartedly.

'That right?' he asked rhetorically. 'Well, what did you call for?' he asked. The words themselves could be seen as terse or accusatory, but the way he said them was as far from that as possible. His tone was warm; flirtatious and almost searching for an equally flirty reply.

'Uh, I don't know. I just did, I guess,' JJ admitted. It was a feeble response, like one a guilty suspect would give, but it was honest.

'I'm glad you did,' Will said, matter-of-fact. JJ liked that he said what he was thinking. It was something she'd noticed the first day they met. For her, speaking her thoughts and feelings - unless it was on the job - had always been difficult. Perhaps this was why she so liked the openness that he offered.

'Yeah?' she asked.

'Yeah,' he affirmed. 'So weekend's coming up, you got any cases lined up?'

'No, not so far,' she said. 'We're not meant to work weekends but when a case can't wait...' A Saturday ring around to rally the troops was not as much of a rarity as any of them would like.

'Guess murder doesn't stop on the weekend,' Will said.

'If I was Spencer I'd give you a statistic,' JJ said with a slight eye-roll.

'I gotta say, I'm glad you're not,' he said. 'Not my type.'

Her breath caught at his obvious flirtation. A little laugh left her lips, awkward and nervous.

After a pause, he cleared his throat quietly and spoke again. 'Forgive me if this is premature, but would you like to come visit me, or have me come visit you?'

'Oh..! Um,' she paused in surprise, fiddling with the silver chain of her necklace.

'You don't have to say yes, I won't be offended or anythin'.'

'Okay,' she said. It was unclear if she was saying yes or just replying to his assurance that there was no obligation to do so. As if realising this, she suddenly clarified. 'It sounds good, I mean.'

'Yeah?' he asked.

'Yeah,' she affirmed quickly before she started over thinking it. 'But I can't say Quantico is all that exciting so how about I come to you?'

'Whatever you prefer, honey,' he said, sincere chivalry. 'I'll cover the airfares.'

'We can split it,' she said definitively.

'What kind of a southern gentleman would I be if I allowed you to pay a dime?'

'You said whatever I prefer, remember?'

'Ah, seems it's a catch twenty-two,' he said.

'Yep, seems so,' she said, playfully smug.

He laughed a little, a crooked grin playing at his lips.

'So you wanna fly down Saturday sometime?' he asked.

'Yeah, that should work,' she said. 'I'll look into flights and accommodation tomorrow.'

'Room at my place,' he said.

'You want to pay for my flights and provide free accommodation?'

'Well you could do some dishes, maybe clean out the gutters, if you insist on earning your keep,' he joked, leaning against his desk.

She laughed. Then, a single word confidently left her lips.

'Okay.'


	3. III

_AN: Thank you all for your kind reviews! I am glad you are liking it and finding it to be in-character. That's often the thing I worry about so thank you! I hope you like chapter three! Also, we need more JJ/Will fanfiction! Write some and I'll love you forever! Pretty please? Anyway, thanks for reading guys, don't forget to leave a quick review! x_

**III.**

"_You have to walk carefully in the beginning of love; the running across fields into  
your lover's arms can only come later when you're sure they won't laugh if you trip."_

Jonathan Carroll

'This is kind of weird,' JJ said suddenly. 'Isn't it?' Her statement became a question as she turned around to face Will. She was standing in the living room of his house, a traditional two-storey home on a quiet street of New Orleans. Will had picked her up from the airport half an hour ago. The drive had been filled with easy chatter and her nerves had stayed calm, but being in his house, she was starting to feel antsy.

'Well, I like to think it's got a certain Southern charm,' Will replied jokingly, with a shrug and a look around the room.

A plaid blanket hung neatly over the back of the brown sofa. The floor was a traditional wood but the walls were a modern off-white, catching the daylight. A small widescreen TV sat on a low bookcase against the wall opposite the sofa. A pair of taller bookcases stood beside it, holding books both old and new.

'No,' JJ said in a half-laugh. 'Your place is great. It's nice, I mean,' she said awkwardly. She stalled, not clarifying what she _was _finding weird.

'What is it?' Will asked, taking a step closer. It was a small one, not wanting to smother or startle.

'I just...' Her hand pressed to her forehead. 'We barely know each other and yet here I am in New Orleans in your house and... I just feel like I've gone crazy.'

'Well, that'd make me crazy too. I'm the one that asked you here,' he said with a sideways smile.

She smiled a little, unsure. She fiddled with her necklace. Dropped her head, her eye line falling on the familiar black leather of her well-worn boots.

'If you're not comfortable –' Will said.

She looked up, guilt in her blue eyes. 'No, no, it's not that,' she said, cutting him off. 'I'm just- I don't normally do things like this.'

'What, fly across four states to hang out with some southern detective?' he said with a youthful twinkle in his eye.

She looked at him, equal parts unsure and something not far from excited.

'Look, you're not some crazy stalker who just showed up at my doorstep,' Will continued. 'I invited you here.'

'Yeah, I know,' she said, feeling mostly reassured – and now somewhat embarrassed. Her head was taking her on a rollercoaster ride, it seemed. Her thoughts and worries were changing and waning as easy as the change of day to night. Her heart, however, had opted out and stood on solid ground. Which, ironically, only made her worry more. _Too soon, JJ. You can't go falling for him yet,_ she thought.

She had originally intended to be in New Orleans much earlier in the day. However, not entirely unexpectedly, there had been a case that meant she had had to change her midday flight to a late afternoon one. Will had been fine with it, joking - or perhaps not - that her later arrival would give him time to clean his house.

'So what time does your flight get in?' he had asked her on the phone that morning.

'Uh, ten to six,' JJ had said while hurriedly shoving paperwork into her 'go bag'. Derek and Reid had been waiting for her in the SUV, ready to head back to Quantico from DC, the location of the case they'd been working. The others had gone on ahead in a second SUV, heading straight home from the final scene. But JJ had said she had needed to grab some paperwork she'd left at the local police station they'd been operating out of. It had been true, but she also needed the opportunity to call Will.

'Alright, I'll meet you in arrivals,' he had said.

'I can get a cab,' she had offered.

'Could, but it'd be foolish considering I'll be there to get you,' Will had said teasingly.

'I mean, you don't _have_ to pick me up.'

'I want to. If it's alright with you, of course.'

'Yeah, that'd be great. Thanks,' she had said with a little shyness.

'No problem.'

'So uh,' she had zipped her bag and looked down at her clothing, 'I'm wearing a purple sweater and a black jacket,' she had said, as if concerned he wouldn't be able to pick her out in a crowd.

'I remember what you look like, JJ,' Will had said gently.

'Right.'

'Remember what I look like?' he had questioned, a gentle tease with a just a smidge of serious curiosity.

'Yeah, I have a vague memory.' She had deliberately understated the extent of this memory – teasing, albeit hardly with subtlety, just because she could. He'd chuckled.

Eight or so hours later, and here she was in New Orleans.

As she shifted her weight from foot to foot and pulled on the purple sleeve of her sweater, she showed an awkwardness that she never wore at work.

Will spoke again. 'Come on,' he said, gesturing toward the hallway with a nudge of his chin. 'I'll show you the spare room.'

'Oh,' she said automatically. 'Great, thanks,' she amended with a wave of the hand.

'What?' he said, glancing over his shoulder as he picked up JJ's duffle bag and led the way down the hallway. 'You didn't think I was gonna make you cozy up with me, did you?'

'No, I just...' she trailed off.

'I'm just kiddin',' he said with a smile she already loved, pushing the door open as he turned to face her. He let her enter the room first, following behind and putting her bag down on the end of the bed. The room was not large but not small either, a generously sized bed taking pride of place, with a wardrobe and armchair against the opposite wall. The bedding was a neutral dark blue and the walls were the same white as in the living room.

'No ensuite I'm afraid, but there's one off my room so the main bathroom's all yours. It's just across the hall. Clean towels are behind the door.'

'You didn't have to go to all this effort.'

'Gotta maintain that southern hospitality,' he said.

JJ smiled, wandering further into the room, glancing out the window. The backyard was more like a block of land, left to its own devices. On the wall by the window, a framed black and white photo caught her eye. It was of a man dragging a dinghy across the messy scrub at the edge of a lake, it's bow just touching the water.

'Is this your dad?' she asked.

'Yeah,' Will said, coming to stand a little distance beside her, looking at the photo. 'My daddy loved that thing. He'd drag my lazy ass outta bed every Saturday and we'd take it out on the lake, catch some fish. Try to, anyway. Ne'er had much luck.'

'You look a lot like him,' JJ said, studying the face of the man in the picture.

'Yeah, rotten luck, huh?' Will said with a smile.

JJ laughed a little, shaking her head. She paused. 'He was very handsome,' she said.

Will smiled. The implied compliment was obvious.

'Thanks,' he said. 'So we should probably be thinking bout dinner,' he continued, glancing down at his watch. 'I don't know what takes your fancy, but there's some decent places nearby. Or I can cook something here,'

'You cook?' she asked, impressed but trying not to show it.

'On occasion,' he said with a slight shrug.

JJ tried not to wonder what those occasions were. It was far too early into this for jealousy. Whatever_ this_ was.

'What do you normally do for dinner?'

'Honestly? I usually just grab something quick at the pub round the corner.'

'Lets do that then.'

'But then I don't usually have a beautiful FBI agent with me,' he said.

She blushed, looking down to hide it. Then, she looked up and answered with a teasing reply. _'Usually?'_

'Okay, never,' he said sincerely. She smiled.

Suddenly, there was a noise outside. A dog bark. JJ's smile fell as she flinched, startled by the sound. Then came another bark. And another. She stiffened.

'JJ?' Will could see her unease - the panic in her eyes, the whitening of her knuckles as her right hand gripped the wooden footboard of the bed.

He spoke her name again, a touch louder. Suddenly her eyes met his worried ones.

'Yeah?' She spoke softly.

'You alright?' He deliberately didn't move closer. She was clearly startled and he didn't want to make it worse. Nor did he want to make her self-conscious or embarrassed.

'Yeah,' she flushed, tucking her hair behind her ear as if to compose herself. 'Yeah, yeah, I'm fine.'

Will studied her, unconvinced.

'So, the pub?' she asked, continuing the conversation they had been having. It was clear to Will that she didn't want to linger on the panic she'd just shown. Nor did she want to talk about it. He'd follow her lead and respect her wishes. He blinked as if trying to remove the concern from his eyes.

'You sure?' he asked. It was unclear if he was checking or her emotional state or checking on their dinner destination. Perhaps both.

'Yeah, just let me freshen up first, do a bit of girly primping,' she said, answering the latter.

'Alright,' Will said with a smile.

He nodded at her and turned to leave the room.

'I'll be out in the living room when you're ready,' he said over his shoulder.

'Okay.'

He stopped and looked back at her, a hand on the doorframe.

'You uh,' he paused and cleared his throat a little. 'You don't need any primping, by the way.'

He smiled and lingered for a moment. When she smiled back, reddening cheeks and all, his hand fell from the doorframe and he left her to the primping he expected she would do anyway.

Once he left, JJ pushed the door close and leant against it. She let out a deep breath, calming her racing heart. She wasn't sure what had had the greater impact on her heart rate, the panic at the barking of dogs, or the giddiness at Will's compliment. It was with scary surprise that she realised...

It was probably the latter.


	4. IV

_AN: Sorry for my epic slowness in updating! I will try to be much faster next time! I don't think I have updated since the finale, so a brief side note… how amazing was it? We got lucky with that one… finally! Lots of lovely JJ/Will that ironically, only leaves me wanting more. Anyway, I think I needed to let the beauty of the finale settle in my head before I rewound my brain and went back to their beginning. My ideas of their beginning, anyway. I am also working on an on-going Rookie Blue fanfiction, so I am trying my best to balance the two. On the plus side, this is the longest chapter yet! I hope you like it and please don't forget to leave a review! Thank you for your lovely comments, they mean the world to me and give me motivation to keep writing – and remind me that there are actually quite a few JJ/Will shippers out there! x_

**IV:**

JJ tucked her bare feet underneath her and pulled the blanket from the back of the couch, throwing it over her lap and burrowing her hands into the fabric where it dropped between her legs. She had fallen asleep quickly in the cozy bed of Will's spare room. _Unusually_ quickly for her, in fact. With the job she had, she'd become good at sleeping in new places. But it still usually took her quite a while to initially nod off. She'd had awoken with a start, unsure why her slumber had suddenly broken. Then, the neighbour's dog had barked.

_Oh. That's why._

Only a few months had passed since she had been trapped in the barn at Tobias Henkel's property, coming face to face with rabid dogs. Though the flashbacks had thankfully ceased in the first few weeks following the incident, the noise of a dog barking still sent a chill down her spine and sent her mind into brief panic.

The barking that had awoken her had stopped quickly, but as she had lain there in the soft bed, the panicked thoughts and memories still danced in her mind minutes later. She had tried to ignore them and get back to sleep, but when there were another few barks some time later, she had accepted defeat. She had crept from the room, stealth and quiet like a teenager sneaking out to a party. She had helped herself to a glass of water and sat down at one end of the couch, resting her glass on the armrest in between sips, her hand cradled around it.

She glanced at the clock on the wall. Just after three in the morning.

_Great._

She took a final sip of water and set the glass down on a coaster on the coffee table. She and Will had eaten dinner at a local bar by the name of Fat Harry's, where it seemed Will was quite the familiar face. After five people had greeted him by name, JJ had teased him about being like a football player at homecoming. He had teased her about being jealous. _Again._

Conversation had flowed easily and he'd taken her football reference as a conversation topic, employing faux arrogance in playful boasting that he had played in high school. He had cocked his head and asked if she were impressed. She had looked at him across the hard wood table and only semi-jokingly replied, 'Oh, absolutely.' He'd relaxed in his seat and asked whether _she_ had played sport in high school. When JJ had bashfully confessed to having gone to college on a soccer scholarship, Will had clearly been impressed and perhaps a smidge surprised. 'Wow, okay then,' he'd said. 'You win that one,' he'd drawled with a chuckle.

After dinner, Will had insisted on taking JJ to a famed local ice-cream parlor. She'd laughed and said he didn't seem like an ice-cream kind of a guy. 'What _is_ an ice-cream kind of guy?' he'd asked. She hadn't really had an answer for that, so she'd just shrugged and smiled. As she'd licked at the cold vanilla ice-cream perched precariously in a waffle cone, she'd felt a million miles away from work, despite just closing a case that same day. It had felt like she'd been in New Orleans a lot longer than just a number of hours. The feeling had been surprising and a little unnerving, but not unwelcomed.

JJ leant back into Will's comfy couch and glanced at the clock again, knowing she would really need to get to sleep soon if she wasn't going to be exhausted the next day. Well, the same day, _technically_. Suddenly, she heard soft noises in the hallway. She glanced up and saw Will just metres away. He had seen her and was looking back at her, a hint of surprise on his face.

'Hey,' Will said, his voice croaky with sleep. He scratched the top of his head and looked at her warmly.

'Oh,' JJ said as she sat up straight as if she'd been caught doing something bad. She glanced away, embarrassed, before tucking her hair behind her ears and looking up at Will. 'Sorry, did I wake you up?'

'No, just getting some water,' he explained, gesturing to the kitchen.

Will was shirtless, not having expected to find JJ up. Her eyes glanced at his chest before deliberately looking away, as if fearing he'd notice the appreciation in her eyes. Black sweatpants clad his lower half and his hair was adorably sleep ruffled, a boyish contrast to his manly torso.

'Okay,' JJ said, straightening her posture. 'Sorry, I just thought I'd sit up for a bit.' She was glad she'd worn presentable gray lounge pants to bed, rather than pajama sets. She sometimes did, especially when she was away on a case. It wasn't unheard of for her to have to get up suddenly and wake the team in the middle of the night, in the instance of her phone ringing with a development that couldn't wait until morning. That ringing was never a good sign. It usually meant a body.

She glanced down at her torso, as if checking what she wore. A loose white tank top – minus a bra – covered her upper half. Thankfully, she had put a hoodie on over it before leaving Will's spare bedroom. Her braless state would not be revealed.

'Everything okay?' Will asked, his voice swept from the laundry where he had gone to grab a shirt, attending to his about his own lack of attire. She thought it was probably more that he was worried about offending her, than being embarrassed himself. _He doesn't need to be_, JJ thought. As soon as the thought came to mind, she pushed it aside, embarrassed at her schoolgirl-like admiration.

'Yeah, yeah it's fine,' she said, remembering why she was awake in the first place. The memory did nothing to make her reply sound believable.

'That good, huh?' he teased as he reappeared, tugging a grey tshirt down over the waistband of his sweatpants.

He threw a small smile her way, reassuring if not a little nervous himself.

She fidgeted, tucking her hair behind her ears once again and fiddling with the zipper of her navy hoodie.

Will grabbed a glass from a wall cupboard by the fridge. Earlier, when JJ herself had sought a glass of water, she'd happened to guess the right cupboard, first go. She'd been glad she didn't have to sticky-beak through all the cabinets and cupboards. It would have felt wrong, somehow. She'd reminded herself that it wasn't like going through his underwear drawer, or even the bathroom cupboard. But as it had turned out, she hadn't needed to venture past that first cupboard, anyway.

'Can I get you anything?' Will drawled with a glance back at her, the open-plan layout allowing her to meet his eyes. 'Tea, coffee?' he suggested. 'Hot chocolate?' he added with a slight chuckle and smile, as if desperate to

provide a vast array of options.

'I'm fine,' JJ said with a smile, her heart skipping a beat at the genuine care that was so innately _him_. 'I helped myself to a glass of water too, actually. Just before,' she spoke with a hint of unnecessary sheepishness, gesturing to the now-empty glass that she'd placed on the coffee table.

'Don't look so worried, there's no charge for water,' Will teased, moving closer with a easy, gentle gait.

She laughed a little, self-deprecating. She was usually confident; determined and focused to a fault. Hell, she had to be in her job. But with Will, all that seemed to be rapidly collapsing. Especially now, when her control and composure had been shaken by the noise of that damn dog. _He's probably a lovely animal,_ JJ thought as if scolding herself.

'Wanna talk about it?' Will asked, pulling her from her thoughts.

'It's nothing,' JJ said as he came to sit on the couch, keeping his distance but not awkwardly so. Just enough so she didn't feel stifled, but not an inch more.

'Okay,' Will said, unconvinced.

'You should go back to bed,' JJ said.

'Tryin' to kick me outta my own living room?'

'No,' she laughed. 'I just meant, don't stay up on my account.' She emphasised her words with movements of her pale hands.

Will smiled at her, watched her hands fall back to her lap. He shrugged, somehow more with his head than shoulders. 'Figure if I sit here long enough you might tell me what's wrong,' he said, the joking tone not fully masking the sincerity of his words.

There was silence for a moment. Will took a few sips from his glass of water, then placed it on the coffee table on a square coaster identical to the one JJ's glass stood on. As he leant back into the couch, JJ suddenly spoke.

'There was a dog barking,' she said, matter-of-factly, as if giving the time or commenting on the weather.

'What?' Will asked instinctively, a little confused.

'That dog was barking again. It woke me up I couldn't get back to sleep.' She spoke faster than normal, as if afraid she'd lose her nerve.

'And you didn't want to tell me that?' Will asked, unsure why telling him that was such a big deal. The noise of a dog barking would keep anyone from a good night's sleep.

'Dogs freak me out,' she admitted. Matter-of-fact once again. It unnerved him. He got the sense that she didn't normal speak so objectively about her own perceived weaknesses or well-kept secrets.

'Oh,' Will said with a slight nod. He lifted his head and looked her in the eye. 'You know why?' he asked, sensing that she did indeed know what had caused this fear.

'Yeah, uh,' she laughed a little with awkward nervousness. She swallowed and took a breath.

'You don't have to tell me…' Will offered, politely.

'You persist until I start talking and then you want to stop me just as I start?' JJ said with a smile, meeting his eyes steadily for the first time since he'd sat beside her. 'Is that some detective's reverse psychology technique?' she teased.

Will's lips curved into a sideways grin. 'Just didn't wanna make you think you had to tell me if you'd rather not,' he said sincerely after a few seconds.

JJ let her hands part and one came to rest between them, as if grounding her - to him. Her skin made no contact with his, but the impact was still strong. She felt safe. What that in itself implied? She'd worry about that later.

She started speaking, seemingly disregarding his comment that so offered an easy out, no questions asked. 'A couple months ago, we had a case where this man was murdering people who he thought were sinners. Cheating wife, couple with too much money…,' she said. That part was easy. She looked away, her gaze drifting off to the other side of the room.

She continued a second or two later. 'Anyway, me and Reid went to follow a lead at this old farmhouse. At the time, we didn't know that the owner was _actually_ the unsub. We figured it out pretty fast though, just as we were leaving. We saw through the window.' She told the story in choppy facts, as if sifting through her memory and picking out the relevant pieces of information. 'He saw us and he ran out the back door. We couldn't find him and we split up…' she closed her eyes as guilt and regret crept in.

Will sat still, waiting with a patience she was grateful for. _Had he always been that way? Even as a child?_ She imagined so. His mother got lucky.

JJ took a shallow breath and continued telling the story. 'Reid checked the cornfields on the property while I checked the barn. It was stupid, really, but I went all the way in and he locked me in there,' she said before pausing. 'The unsub, not Reid,' she clarified unnecessarily when realising her statement had sounded vague.

'Yeah, I got that,' Will drawled gently, the smile creeping back onto his face.

JJ smiled weakly before letting out a breath and continuing. 'At first it was just that I was trapped you know?' she spoke rhetorically. 'And it was so dark. I had my torch but it was a big space and it only did so much,' she explained, spelling out the story. Perhaps because it was good to get it off her chest. Perhaps because Will was so patient. Perhaps both. 'But then there was barking…'

She paused. When this pause lasted longer than any previous ones, Will's hand found hers where she'd rest it between them. His fingers gently cradled her own, his touch speaking silent words. _I'm here. Tell me if you can. It might help._

Her head stayed still but her blue eyes looked down at their hands. She knew if she lowered her head and looked down obviously, Will would most likely think she was shaken by his actions. She was quite the opposite, in fact. She let her hand rest fully in his palm, finding her voice once again.

'The dogs… they'd killed one of his victims. We pretty much knew that already, but even if we hadn't.. there was evidence of that on the floor,' her voice shook as she remembered the grisly sight and the deafening thump of her heart as realisation had dawned. 'They came at me and I shot them,' she added in abrupt conclusion.

'Good,' Will said simply.

She laughed once, unexpectedly. She couldn't help it. His simple reply was unexpected but exactly what she needed. She looked up at his face. Worry still swirled in his eyes like deep whirlpools, but a warm (and teeny bit cheeky) smile played subtly on his lips.

She let out a long breath and he tightened the grip of his fingers in hers. She swallowed and was surprised by the weight of a tear at the corner of her eye. She'd impressed even herself with her controlled recount and her ability to hold back any mistiness that dared creep into her eyes. And now, when she'd told the story, a droplet threatened escape. Perhaps it was relief at getting it off her chest. Perhaps it was the laughter, combined with the relief. Either way, she wasn't happy about it's arrival. Her free hand came up and caught the droplet with the side of her index finger. Will, thankfully didn't comment.

She wondered if he was going to say anything else. Truthfully, just telling him that much had taken a toll on her and she didn't know if she had it in her to go into any more detail or answer the questions that any person, let alone detective, would have. _How many dogs were there? How long where you there? Was that the first time you had to use your gun?_

She bravely looked at Will, confident that the tear had been flying solo. He looked back at her and lifted their hands, bringing his other one to the other side of hers, so that her hand was cocooned in between his. She waited for him to say something, still not sure if he would.

'If it helps, I got one of those sound recording CDs of rain sounds and waterfalls. Old lady down the road gave it to me last Christmas. Meant to help you sleep but frankly - just makes me need the restroom,' he drawled softly as if telling a secret.

JJ laughed. A proper laugh this time. Will saw the lightness in her blue eyes. The heavy darkness pushed away. At least for now.

'Thank you,' she said sincerely.

She hoped he understood that her words referred to more than just the offer of the CD. _Thank you for knowing what I needed. Thank you for listening. Thanks for pushing, just the right amount._

He smiled. And with that, she knew he had.


	5. V

_AN: I am so sorry for the insanely epic delay in me updating this fic. I don't really have a good excuse. Just me being slack combined with some writer's block. Anyway, here is the next chapter, finally! Thanks for your reviews and private messages. I am amazed and touched by all the kind support I have received for this fic. I apologise again for keeping you waiting and I hope you enjoy this chapter! Sorry for any typos, I have proofread but it's two am so my brain may be sleepy. I wouldn't wait until the morning to update but I fear I'd just keep obsessing about it and nitpicking. Anyway, hope you enjoy and please review! x_

**V:**

The shopping basket was heavy, the handle digging into her bare forearm with the weight of a weeks' worth of groceries. The team had just closed a case earlier that evening. A girl missing at a mall in Virginia. It had ended happily, at least in one regard. The girl was found alive. But the reveal that she had been sexually abused by her uncle had taken away from the happy ending. JJ had driven home on autopilot, preoccupied with feelings of empathy for the little girl and her parents. Distracted, she had forgotten that she had intended to do the grocery shopping on the way home, and had groaned when she got home, kicked of her heels and found the kitchen cupboards bare.

JJ had contemplated leaving the shopping to the next day. Yet, as if on queue, her stomach had grumbled in protest. And so, an hour later and close to nine pm, she found herself at the local Wholefoods, making her way to the checkout.

Minutes later, she was paying for her groceries. She handed her credit card to the cashier - a sleepy looking teenage girl who sighed as if taking the card was a great effort. It didn't take a profiler to conclude that the girl did not possess even an ounce of passion for what JJ hoped was only a part time job. Her hope much more for the sake of the girl than that of the customers'. As JJ signed the receipt, she winced at the total cost of her groceries. Fruit and veg wasn't cheap.

_No wonder people eat junk food, _she thought.

Taking back her card and her copy of the receipt, she loaded her three bags into the shopping cart and said a thank you to the unresponsive employee. She felt her phone vibrate in the bag over her shoulder.

_A new case already?_

She groaned audibly. A woman in a short black dress looked at JJ as she passed by, sharp eyebrows raised slightly. _Stare all you want lady, I'm tired and don't care who knows it,_ she thought.

_And now that girl is rubbing off on me... great._

She pulled out her phone and was pleasantly surprised by the name on the screen.

Will. They had spoken numerous times in the month since her visit to New Orleans to see him. But JJ was by no means opposed to hearing his voice once again.

'Hey..!' JJ said, her excitement failing to stay hidden in her voice.

'Pleased to hear from me, 'ey?' Will teased.

Everything sounded sexy in that Southern accent. Sure enough, JJ's heart drummed swiftly like impatient fingers on a table.

'No, I just -,' she began. 'I mean, _yes_, but I was expecting it to be Hotch with a new case.'

'Ah,' Will said. 'So twice as good then?'

'Yeah,' she admitted. 'Unless of course you are calling on a _professional_ basis.'

She pushed the shopping cart, steering awkwardly with one hand. She moved to the common space of the small shopping mall, where a row of benches stood, awaiting weary shoppers in need of respite. She sat on the vacant end bench, facing the supermarket and with the bakery and pharmacy behind her. She angled the shopping cart so that the bench stopped it from rolling away, leaning her bent right arm - phone to her ear - on the metal frame of the cart.

Will continued, confirming his call was not work-related. 'Not unless you think a string of drink driving incidents is worthy of the BAU.' They'd had similar exchanges before, but it was comfortable. Familiar, but not tedious or routine.

'Sadly not,' she replied lightheartedly, a little bolder than she'd been before in such similar instances.

'Missin' me, huh?' Will teased. JJ heard a soft creak, a sound that she'd come to recognise as belonging to that of the chair at the desk in his home office.

She gave a weak, nervous laugh. 'I just meant...'

'Hey, I've kinda been missing you too.'

'Kinda?' JJ teased in a moment of flirty confidence. The confidence left her as soon as the words did. She blushed, nervous. She was glad he couldn't see the evidence.

'Hey, can't come on too strong and go scaring you away, now can I?' She heard a smile in his voice and was relieved, restoring her confidence, allowing her to play along.

'I don't scare easily,' she said, playfully cocky. 'Usually,' she adds softly, rolling her eyes in instinctive self-deprecation, remembering Will being a first hand witness to her fear of all things canine. It had only been a month ago, after all.

Will, to JJ's further relief, didn't respond to her soft, added word. She was sure he had heard it, though. The fact that he left it alone? That was for her. She knew that too.

_How can he know me so well, so quickly?_

'Yeah, with your job, I got no doubt that's true,' Will said.

'It's not like your job is sunshine and roses either,' she said lightly.

'Did arrest a florist about a year ago,' Will said.

'Seriously?'

'Yeah,' he said. 'Turns out he was growing more than daisies.'

'Wow. A drug dealing florist. You don't see that one every day.'

'It was a good one, that's for sure,' Will said with a slight laugh. 'You're not still at work are you? I hear voices.'

'Are you implying I have no life, Detective? There are voices so I must be at work? I could be… I don't know, out on the town for all you know,' she suggested in faux offense.

'Well, are you?'

'No, I'm at the store,' she said quickly. 'But that is besides the point!' she protested.

Will laughed. 'Okay,' he said. 'I'm just messing with you.'

'I know,' she said.

Suddenly, the bench on which JJ sat wobbled a little, causing her to turn in search of the cause. A young girl with brown pigtails jumped from bench to bench like Liesel Von Trapp, her gaze focused and her landings precise. Swiftly, a voice called out, scolding the girl. Becky, apparently. JJ saw the watchful eyes of Becky's mother, turned to watch her daughter from her position at the pharmacy counter. Becky hopped down from the bench with a sigh that seemed premature given her age. Far too young to be bitter.

Becky wandered over to her mother, who met JJ's gaze and called out an apology, gesturing to the girl who was now beside her. JJ shook her head and waved a hand, smiling in warm disregard. The woman put an arm around her daughter's shoulders, keeping her close as she completed her purchase. JJ turned back around as she remembered the girl from today. The girl in the mall. Perhaps she should have left the shopping to another time, after all.

'JJ?' Will's voice came through the phone and JJ realised she had totally tuned-out.

'Yeah, sorry,' she said quickly, feeling heat rise to her cheeks. 'Kinda drifted off for a second there. Sorry, I'm here.'

She was embarrassed, worried she'd offended Will.

'You okay?'

She let out a breath and felt a smile lift her lips. He clearly knew she hadn't tuned him out deliberately. Again she was staggered by his insight. Perhaps he should've been a profiler.

'Yeah, I'm good.' She tugged at the hem of her stiff white shirt. She had left for the store before changing into something more comfortable, worried she'd lose the will to do the shopping if she was comfortable on the couch in her loungewear.

'You sure?' Will asked, gently persistent.

'Yeah, just remembering today's case…'

'Guess asking if it was a bad one is probably redundant.'

'Actually, relatively speaking, it wasn't that bad. No one died anyway.'

'But?' he urged gently.

'A little girl went missing. We found her but turned out she had been being abused.'

Will sighed. 'Those are the toughest, aren't they?'

'What?'

'Cases with kids. Abused kids.'

'Yeah,' JJ agreed.

'Last year,' Will began, clearing his throat. 'Had a boy being molested by the neighbour who babysat him. That was a tough one.'

'Yeah,' JJ said understandingly. 'I've seen dead bodies, but somehow this was worse. How messed up is that?'

'Nah,' Will said. 'Cause for them, it's too late and you know they are at least at peace. No pain, no hurt. For her, it's still going.' Will spoke with a wisdom that suggested he'd struggled with this himself. 'But you stopped the abuse. The physical pain. That's the most important thing. She can start to heal now, you know? You gave her that.'

She nodded despite the fact that Will couldn't see her. She swallowed and closed her eyes momentarily, touched by his words.

'You have quite the way with words, Detective. Either that or it's just the accent that does it,' she joked, trying to bring the conversation back to the playfulness of before.

Will laughed lightly and a silence crept in. It wasn't entirely uncomfortable, but JJ preferred it be filled.

'Anyway, sorry, you probably didn't call to hear me go on about work,' she said.

'So long as I'm hearing your voice…' he drawled in such a way that JJ didn't know if he was joking or not. She found herself hoping it was the latter. She was saved from having to reply when Will spoke again. 'Also wanted to see what you are up to this weekend. Any cases?'

'Not so far. As long as no cases come in tomorrow, it should stay that way.' It was Thursday. JJ wished they could skip Friday so she'd be guaranteed a free weekend. Or, as good as guaranteed anyway.

Tired of sitting and now feeling at ease in the conversation, she stood and slowly ambled towards the automatic doors that led to the parking lot.

'Wondered if you felt like coming down here, again?' Will asked. 'Or if I could make a trip up there?'

'Urgh, trust me, Quantico isn't all that exciting,' she said as she steered the cart out the doors and toward her car. Her FBI instincts made her extra aware of her surroundings, and she looked quickly in all directions as she rolled the cart across the parking lot, illuminated by a few strong floodlights from the exterior of the mall. It was still fairly busy, other cars remaining and a couple of people passing by, to and from their cars. Nevertheless, being aware of her surroundings had quickly become second-nature once she'd started working at the BAU.

'You're not far from DC,' Will reminded, following on from JJ's poor evaluation of Quantico's interest-level.

'Yeah, I guess,' she said, pausing momentarily. She wasn't quite sure she was ready to have him in her space. It was unfair, she knew, for she'd stayed at his place and had much more first-hand insight into his life in New Orleans than he had into hers in Quantico. She knew he would stay at a hotel if she preferred, but would not feel right about asking. Especially after he welcomed her into his home with open arms.

Despite this, she couldn't deny that, at least for her, it was too knew to let him all the way in. She wasn't even sure what they were. Friends? Friends with potential? In the early stages of a relationship?

She took a breath and spoke again, amazed by Will's patient silence. 'You know what, I'd really like to get away for the weekend,' she said. 'Room for me down there in New Orleans?' She asked as she unlocked her car and began loading the bags into the back seat.

'Yeah, think we could squeeze you in,' he joked. 'One one condition.'

JJ felt her brow furrow. 'Okay… what's that?' She locked the car and returned the cart to an assigned area at the edge of the parking lot.

'You have dinner with me.'

'Um, we did that last time, you know...'

'A proper dinner. Nice restaurant, flowers, all that.'

'You mean like a date?'

'Yeah, that's what they call it,' he teased.

'Okay,' she said simply, and quickly, too. The speed of her reply gave away an eagerness that she hadn't quite expected. It wasn't that she wasn't attracted to him. It was just that she'd never been good at relationships and had stayed clear of them for some time.

'Yeah?' Will questioned, as if worried he hadn't heard her correctly.

'You sound surprised,' JJ teased.

'Just glad, that's all. Just glad.'

JJ smiled. She was, too.

The smile lingered on her lips all the way home and stayed there until she fell asleep.


End file.
